Tops in Every Aspect

Samsung Life wins the Gold Award for outstanding achievement

President Park Keun-hee of the Samsung Life
Industrial Co.

Samsung Life Insurance Co. won the Gold Award in the area of life insurance of the Dasan Financial Awards 2010 with the life insurer being the largest in Korea with total assets of over 140 trillion won and the only Korean life insurer listed among Fortune 500 companies. They were ranked 316th last year.
The Samsung affiliate with over 8 million customers which is the largest among domestic rivals and also first in the areas of marketing and talented human resources in the Korea.
The company has been a leader in the life insurance industry in Korea introducing new products and services with its talented financial consultants. The company has also been at the forefront of providing social services including the operation of a hospital, children's home, and support to economically isolated people, among its other public services under its management ideal that corporate profits should be returned to society.
Samsung Life has also been busy exploring overseas market for its products and services. In 1997, the company kicked off its overseas operations by setting up a joint-venture life insurance firm in Bangkok, which was followed by its entry into China's life insurance market in 2005.
In May of last year, the company at last undertook the initial public offering successfully realizing its long-term dream.
Samsung Life stands at an important juncture, poised to achieve a quantum leap from the Korean market leader to global prominence. The core global competencies for this transition are secured by hiring the best human resources, adopting the best systems and nurturing the best corporate culture. To this end, we are increasing our investments in training and are revamping our systems to remain ahead of the competition. In addition, we are acquiring future business drivers by making inroads into the emerging Chinese, Indian and Thai markets. We will build a sound management system, nurturing the necessary global competencies for us to become a major world player, President Lee Soo-chang said.
Our new management paradigm in the 21st century is to become a highly respected company. Our shared values of caring for customers and adhering to ethical practices present the uncompromising foundation of our management system. As we practice these values, we remain the industry leader in Korea that is trusted by our customers and stakeholders in business as well as the society in general, the CEO said.
The Asian Financial Crisis of the late 1990s has led to rapid changes in the business environment. Also, it has become a general trend for the economy to maintain low interest rates and slow growth. Management of customer relationship, therefore, becoming increasingly important for a company to maintain growth and survive the fierce market competition; Samsung Life's move to make customer satisfaction the No. 1 management priority is a timely and appropriate strategy.
In 2003, the Customer Policy Office was launched under the direct control of the CEO. It stands for the companyOs determination to make customers are our top priority and commitment to serve customers in all possible ways as well as the fact that this philosophy is shared by all our employees. A consistent code of business ethics for all our employees and consultants has been established and promoted, and education and training sessions have been provided to help employees learn it and put it to practice.
In order to create the suitable business systems and a corporate culture, we have introduced a one-stop hospital service, opened an integrated call center, and conducted extensive BPR and quality/service evaluation. All these efforts are part of our endeavor to make customer satisfaction our No. 1 management priority, and they have produced substantial and tangible results both within and outside the organization.
With the understanding that our practice still comes up short in terms of our global competitors with a track record of successful CS management, we declared the years from 2005 as the First Phase and the following 3 years as the Second Phase for CS Management Development. The Second Phase ultimately aims to "build a complete system of CS management and become the world's best customer-serving company." We hope to fully incorporate the new management system into our daily business operations and significantly improve our business performance by having an effective implementation.
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